"Judo is a study of techniques with which you may kill if you wish to kill, injure if you wish to injure, subdue if you wish to subdue, and, when attacked, defend yourself" - Jigoro Kano (1889)
***Was this quote "taken out of context"?***

"The judoist has no time to allow himself a margin for error, especially in a situation upon which his or another person's very life depends...."
~ The Secret of Judo (Jiichi Watanabe & Lindy Avakian), p.19

"Hope is not a method... nor is enthusiasm."
~ Brigadier General Gordon Toney

When I'm looking through the ring on the rifle, I just never feel confident. It seems so much more complicated, with all the adjustments you must do, and how instead of simply lining stuff up you have to look through a ring and try to figure out where dead center is so you can put your front post there. I always wonder if it's really really dead center or not.

There are a lot of ways you can screw shooting up, so it's hard to say anything particularly constructive without being there.

Torquing the rifle to line your post up, which may or may not be what you meant, will introduce inaccuracies. The aim of the game is to make a straight line out of your dominant eye, the centre of the ring, the front post and the target; with as little confounding force exerted on the rifle as possible.

Generally, if your post isn't lining up with the centre of the ring, your body is in the wrong position for the shot. There's a natural point of aim for how you're situated when you set up. You can find out whether you're messing things up by aiming your rifle at the target, closing your eyes, putting your rifle down, and picking it up again into your shooting position. When you open your eyes your rifle should be pointed in more or less the same place. That's the natural point of aim for how you're lying.

If you're having trouble finding the centre of the ring - well you're never going to get the exact centre. It's possible your eye is too close though. Could always try sitting a little further back from the thing and see whether you find it any easier that way - though obviously don't fire the thing unless you've got it against your shoulder. If you find it easier, you may be better off adjusting your stock a little.

Oh, and focus on shorter range stuff first - and shooting a consistent group rather than shooting to the dead centre of a target. The real key to shooting is having the patience to keep everything consistent. Once you're consistently missing in the same general area every time you can adjust your actual aim relatively easily. You're likely getting no information about just how you're missing if you're shooting single shots to a 1000 yards out. I doubt very much it can even be done in any meaningful way with your rifle.

Torquing the rifle to line your post up, which may or may not be what you meant, will introduce inaccuracies. The aim of the game is to make a straight line out of your dominant eye, the centre of the ring, the front post and the target; with as little confounding force exerted on the rifle as possible.

Interesting you mention this. After I'd made my original post, and I was practicing with an instructor, he noticed that I had actually been canting my rifle slightly attempting to line everything up. I had not been aware, but it had been affecting my accuracy.

Interesting you mention this. After I'd made my original post, and I was practicing with an instructor, he noticed that I had actually been canting my rifle slightly attempting to line everything up. I had not been aware, but it had been affecting my accuracy.

Yeah I tend to do that when my cheek weld sucks, due to stock shape or whatever.

Way back in 1964, I went into the army and qualified "Expert" with the then-standard M14. With my young eyes and steady body, I could pop those 350-yard "trainfire" sillhouettes without any problems using the iron sights on the 14.
I had trained my rifle shooting primarily with a Benjamin pellet gun, a .22 pneumatic model which I had literally put thousands of rounds through.
I practiced all the standard positions and it served me well.

Fast forward to the present. A few years ago our department decided to get "patrol rifles", a standard AR platform with the EOtech optical sights.
We had to zero these rifles with the iron sights and get the EOtech shooting to the same POI.
My first look through those iron sights with my now-much-older eyes was a bit of a shock... I could hardly get a good sight picture at all.
There were two front sight posts, for instance... One over the other.
Kind of scary to see how age creeps up on you.
Fortunately the optical sights work terrifically.